


What happened after?

by KByrd



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, missing scene from CAWS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 14:35:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2071932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KByrd/pseuds/KByrd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from CAWS when Steve goes to confront Maria.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What happened after?

Steve runs (jogs) to the address she's given him. His excuse for going running at night is more or less the truth. Can't sleep without a bit of exercise.

He knocks at the back door.

Maria opens the door and lets him in.

"Nice place," he says, trying to appear cool and unruffled in her presence. He hasn't seen in her months. Except for that brief meeting in the hospital.

She snorts derisively. It's actually a clammy, dingy basement apartment.

"Belongs to a friend," she explains.

He looks around. Pretty clear she hasn't been here long.

"Is this professional or personal?" he asks bluntly. He'd been meaning to play it cool, but he's rattled.

She looks slightly startled. "I have info," she answers. "At least leads on who you should speak to about the Helicarriers."

"OK then." He tries to hide his disappointment.

She gives him the info - names, contacts, suspicions.

"You don't want to write this down?"

"No," he taps his head.

"Oh right. Eidetic memory."

"Fury told me not to trust anyone," he says sadly.

She shoots him a quick look. "I hope you're not including me on that list. I was the last person Fury called."

He rolls his eyes. "I trust you. Caution is one thing; paranoia is something I'd like to keep in check. I'm just saying that this mission is gonna get kind of lonely."

"You're working with Natasha?"

"You could have told me this information over the phone. You didn't need to meet me face to face."

"I wanted to see how you're doing."

"Fine. Never better," he says sarcastically.

"Fury gave me an assignment," she says.

"Right."

"But you can call me if you need anything."

"Sure. As long as you don't vanish. Again."

Her eyes flash in anger. "I was sent on a mission."

"And you couldn't even say goodbye."

"I couldn't compromise the mission."

"During the mission, sure. I understood that. But what about afterwards?"

"You know what kind of a job I have ..."

"This has nothing to do with the job. This has everything to do with the fact that you didn't have the basic human ... the gra- ..."

"What?"

"To tell me it was over. To explain what went wrong. What I had done wrong ..."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why did you just walk away?"

"I don't think it was just me," she says defensively. "You weren't exactly breaking down my door."

"So now it's on me?"

She pulls herself together.

"No," she answers softly. "You're right. When I first got sent over it was just going to be for a week and I couldn't tell you anything. Then the week turned into a month and when I got back, you were gone on a mission."

"Right."

"It's not OK," she says firmly. "By the time you came back I didn't know what to say and kept trying to convince myself that I'd imagined .... it all."

"Imagined what? The sex? You do that a lot?"

"Sex?" she gives him a withering look.

He scowls. "I mean, invite a guy over, have .. do ... what we did, and then just walk away without anything?"

"Of course not."

"I guess I'm the romantic, huh? Thought we had something."

Maria sighs. She's tired, shaky from recent events and secrets not revealed. "I got scared," she admits. "Wasn't sure if I'd imagined the connection we had. Or if it really was just kind of a ... one time thing."

"You didn't imagine it."

"And then there were the stories about you and Lady Sif."

"Aghr ..." he looks pained. "First off, you should know better than to believe rumours, and second ... that was all after ... that was later."

She gives him a hard look.

"What about you and that Pentagon guy, huh? Rhodey?" He snaps back at her.

She looks shocked and then a little smug. "Jealous much? There's never been anything between us."

The silence hangs between them for an uncomfortable amount of time.

 

"Maria," he says softly. "We have a chance to make it better."

"How?" she asks. "In case you haven't noticed, we're about to start fighting a war of sorts."

"I've been in this situation before," he reminds her. "And I'm not about to let it go. At least this time we can be honest with each other. We can ask - are you interested? Do you care?"

"Yes." She's a little teary now. Maria never shows her emotions.

"We might not get our happy ending, but at least we know." Steve urges her.

"That's so sappy."

"I can live with that."


End file.
